Indie Developers Call out Over Steams Refund Policy

Sneaky PC gamers are abusing Steam’s new refund policy, Indie developers have claimed, and they can prove it. Qwiboo and Puppygames, developers of Beyond Gravity and Revenge of the Titans, respectively, have both presented graphs that show a sharp plummet in sales since the refund policy came into effect on Steam.

Qwiboo was the first developer to reveal how the policy had hurt sales. A graph, released by the developer, shows how sales of it game Beyond Gravity – a well-reviewed, procedurally generated platformer, priced £1.59 – took a nosedive after the refund policy was implemented.

Qwiboo included a second graph, showing that Steam’s upcoming Summer Sale is unlikely to be a factor in the sales figures.

Later, Puppygames chipped in, showing off a graph of total sales of all its games since Steam’s refund policy began:

Hopefully, these revelations should encourage Steam to make its refund policy more dynamic, with the time limit reflecting a percentage of the estimated game length, rather than just a rigid two hours.

Comments

Most indie games can be properly (to know whether you want to continue playing it or not) assessed within half an hour. In all fairness Steam should have known that this was going to happen to shorter games, if there is a way to abuse something so that people can get something for nothing then they will because they are arseholes.

I can’t say I feel bad for whiny indie developers whose games aren’t worth more than two hours of gameplay. Even if people can beat their games in under 2 hours, it obviously shows that their games have no replay value if people are only playing once. The devs “suffering” can either cry about it or do better.

That’s what I’ve been saying for the past 5 years. Where did all the demos go? The demo pretty much told me whether or not I was gonna buy this. Don’t like people refunding your game? Make a better one and stop using early access. Seriously.